Review: MorningStar Farms Mediterranean Chickpea Veggie Burgers

I've eaten my fair share of MorningStar Farms products for the blog, but the funny thing is that I rarely think to purchase them when I am at the store, so I don't eat them at all except when I do reviews. I guess I don't get them often because they are at the opposite end of the freezer case (let's call it the Netherworld) from where I usually frequent. Recently, I just happened to be strolling thought the Netherworld and I glanced in and saw the "NEW" label on these MorningStar Farms Mediterranean Chickpea Veggie Burgers and being that I'm a sucker for new stuff, I hurriedly reached in and grabbed a box. This box set me back $2.99 at Kroger and each box contains four frozen veggie burgers. Each burger is 2.36 ounces and has 110 calories with 10 grams of protein.

I'm starting to get lazy in my old age and when some of these products include a monster amount of ingredients, it sometimes gets difficult to describe everything that is in them.  For that, I'll let MorningStar Farms do the work with their description of this burger from their website:  "A totally refreshing veggie burger, made with chickpeas, spinach, Roma tomatoes, and traditional Greek herbs and spices."  I will note that all of these were visible in the mix of the burger above (I chose the skillet preparation method as opposed to the microwave or the oven, which were also options).  Since they were vague as to what the herbs and spices were, I'll just add in that they included onion powder, garlic powder and paprika, among others.

I have to admit that when I took a bite of this, it was sort of bland.  I could definitely taste the chickpeas and the tomatoes, spinach, spices, etc. were also present in the flavor as well.  The only problem, if you consider it a problem, was that the flavor was bland and lacked some of the spice and freshness that you'd get from something that labels itself as Mediterranean.  For something that included so many ingredients, as MorningStar Farms products often do, I would have expected something with a bit more kick.  That said, chickpeas are typically bland, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised if I had actually given it some real thought prior to taking a bite.  Although, if I had taken the hint from the front of the box, I clearly would have doctored this up to add more flavor since the addition of the onions and cheese on the box are clearly showing that you should take the freedoms to doctor this on your own.

Buy It or Fly By It?  Despite the fact that this was bland on its own, it did provide a good base for me to get creative and doctor it up with some of my own flavors, which makes it kind of a choose your own adventure product (almost like a real burger in some respects).  It's because of this choose your own adventure quality that I give this a BUY IT rating.  It's a solid canvas which to start your food "art" project and it's something that I'll be looking forward to doing with the remaining two burgers in the box.

BUY IT!!